For those of you that work in the ICU, it looks like we are doing a good job in helping family members deal with their loved one’s death. According to this NIH funded study, family members of patients who died in the ICU tend to be more satisfied than family members of patients who survived their ICU stay:

“Our research team has focused on improving the quality of care delivered to critically ill patients and their family members,” said J. Randall Curtis, MD, MPH, the principal investigator of the study. “In one of our prior studies, we noticed that families of patients dying in the ICU were more satisfied with the ICU experience than families whose loved one survived their ICU stay. We found this surprising and, therefore, we decided to further explore the reasons for this difference.”

I found this surprising as well. You would expect the opposite to be true. At any rate, this is one reason why I’ve always been able to withstand the constant death and dying that exists in the MICU. The support that you provide to people at this time is invaluable and I’ve always considered it an honor to care for people at the end of their life.